In an interview with Andrew Marr, to be broadcast on BBC1 on Sunday, the Chancellor criticises the chaotic scenes which surrounded the death of the former Iraqi dictator.

It follows similar remarks by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and Conservative leader David Cameron, who described the television footage as 'pretty grisly'.

However, Mr Blair has so far refused to say anything about the hanging, which provoked worldwide revulsion and condemnation.

Iraqi television broadcast pictures of Saddam on the gallows with a noose being tied around his neck by balaclava-clad hangmen.

Further images shot by guards on their mobile phones emerged, showing the condemned man being taunted and jeered.

Mr Blair, who was on holiday at the Miami home of Bee Gee Robin Gibb when the execution took place, left Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett to give the first official response.

Since his return to work on Thursday he has repeatedly ducked questions about the hanging.

In interviews he gave to the Northern Ireland media, his aides warned he would talk only about the 'emergency' statement he had given concerning the province's peace process.

Then on a hospital visit on Friday, Mr Blair also blocked all queries.

His silence now contrasts with the lengthy statement which he gave when Saddam Hussein was captured in 2003.

Anti-war Labour MP Alan Simpson said: "Nothing speaks louder than the morally vacuous position he occupies than his silence.

"He can comment on the death of celebrities and even about fictional TV characters but not on the execution of an enemy."

Mr Cameron told BBC Radio 4 last week: "I think the way it was handled, clearly with people shouting and gesticulating, was quite wrong and I'm glad that the Iraqi authorities are going to have an investigation and a review into it."

He has also urged the Government to order an immediate investigation into what went wrong in the aftermath of the Iraq conflict.

Now Mr Brown's remarks will pile further pressure on Mr Blair to register his condemnation.

He is likely to be quizzed about Saddam's execution at the first Prime Minister's Questions of the New Year on Wednesday.

Part of his reluctance about speaking out may be based on his desire not to open a rift with President George Bush, who supports the death penalty.

The Chancellor made his criticism in one of the most wide-ranging interviews he has yet given.

It was recorded in the library of Kirkcaldy High School, where he was educated, and he strayed far from his normal economics-and-finance brief.

Mr Brown used the opportunity to lay out his vision for an improved education system to create the 'most talented country in the world'.